*****

The rest of your working week is delightfully peaceful. You don't see Hyuna again whatsoever, so you figure she got the message that you really aren't going to stand for her meaningless tormenting. At 8pm on Friday night, you pack up your things and head home in your car.

Taehyung's precious BMW isn't parked in the drive when you arrive at home, so you figure he's gone out for drinks with his friends or something of the sort. Opening the door wearily and placing your bag and keys on the coffee table like you do every single day, a loud growl erupts from your stomach. You realize with a sigh that you haven't eaten since breakfast.

Dragging yourself to the kitchen, you open up the cupboard.

"Crap, we're all out of ramen," you mumble to yourself grumpily.

Slumping your shoulders and groaning in frustration, you realize you'll have to make a trip to the convenience store. Despite the fact that you're tired, it's only a five-minute walk so you decide to leave the car behind.

You pull an oversized hoodie over your work clothes and grab your keys again.

*****

You step into the cool, air-conditioned shop, pulling your hoodie tighter around yourself as the breeze dusts your skin lightly. You momentarily glance at the cashier, but you look back again as you recognize the familiar, sleeping face.

"Yoongi?"

"Huh? What?" he mumbles, eyes fluttering open for a moment before he closes them again and drifts back to sleep. You giggle at his behavior. How many jobs does this man have? No wonder he's always so tired.

You move towards the shelf where your favorite ramen is kept, dozens of them all lined up neatly. You reach up high towards them, unfortunately turning out to be quite a stretch for your short frame. As you go to grasp one of the cups, it slips between your fingers and topples precariously on the edge of the shelf before tipping off. Sighing, you look down, expecting to see it bump onto the polished floor.

But a masculine hand appears. And it swiftly catches your cup ramen mid-air.

"You're not so good with shelves, are you?" the owner of the hand chuckles. You grit your teeth. You know that chuckle all too well.

"Oh, shut it," you mumble, snatching your noodles from his hand.

"You're welcome," you look up at Jungkook and he gives you his signature smirk. Even though he's dressed down from his usual clean-cut suit, donning a black hoodie and jeans, he still manages to look sexy as hell. His hood is pulled up over his head, his black hair peeking out below the hem.

Determined to make it seem like you absolutely weren't just checking him out, you raise your eyebrows at him, unamused.

"Are you stalking me now, Mr. Jeon?"

He holds his hands up in defense. "I'm here for the same reason as you are. Can't a man get himself some ramen without being accused of stalking?" he chuckles.

"And I thought I told you not to call me that. Too formal. Call me Jungkook," he tuts.

There he goes again, asking you to call him by his first name.

You scrunch up your nose. "Why? Everyone else addresses you as Mr. Jeon or sir,"

He steps closer to you, moving a strand of your hair behind your ear.

"But you're special," he whispers in your ear, making your stomach do a backflip. He lingers there for a second, making you all too aware of his hot breath hitting the base of your neck.

He steps back again, watching intently for your reaction. He bursts out laughing when he sees your dazed expression, your cheeks tomato red.

After he finally stops laughing, he lets out a deep breath. "Oh, I really got you there," he grins. You simply glare at him.

"You're my personal assistant now. It's weird if you call me Mr. Jeon all the time, it makes me feel like some kind of teacher"

You laugh at that, a comical image of him drawing on a chalkboard and explaining maths equations popping into your head. Maybe Jimin was right, maybe he didn't go by what he said anymore. Maybe he doesn't care about building a wall between himself and women. His eyes light up when you smile. He's never seen you laugh before, and he wishes you would more often.

"Fine," you roll your eyes playfully "Jungkook,"

A shiver runs down his spine hearing you say his name. Suddenly it turns awkward as you both just stand there in silence, you fiddling with the packaging on your ramen and him just staring at his feet. He coughs awkwardly and grabs himself some ramen from the shelf. He points toward the checkout. "I got to go pay for this,"

"Me too,"

You both move toward the checkout and the gently snoring form of Yoongi.

"Ah, good to see you hard at work as usual, Yoongi Hyung," Jungkook murmurs dryly. You snort.

After waking him up (and receiving a glare and a death threat) you pay for your items and exit the shop.

"How come you don't fire him? He's always sleeping or slacking off when he's at reception, and he literally just glared at you without caring that you were his boss," You laugh as you kick a stray pebble.

"Well I'm also your boss, and you're pretty mean to me. But I don't complain about it, do I?"

You bite your lip. He's not wrong. "But at least I try my best at work. I'm a pretty good employee, right?"

"Y/N, your job was to watch my drink to make sure nobody spiked it with drugs. You told me about the drink being spiked after i swallowed it,"

You frown, pouting your bottom lip. "Aw, you still aren't gonna let that go?"

He stares at you for a second, his smile never leaving his face.

"Cute," he whispers under his breath, too inaudible for you to hear.

"Huh? What was that?"

"Oh... um, nothing,"

He smiles gently, looking down at his feet.

"Yoongi hyung is an old friend of mine. He's had a rough upbringing; his past hasn't been easy. He needs this job. As you can see, he has to have more than one as it is. Besides, when he is awake, he's actually a very smart man. I know him well, he's like a brother to me,"

Oh. That's new. It makes you wonder if Jungkook is friends with any of your other co-workers.

"Who else are you friends with at work?" You question, tilting your head to the side.

"Oh, only Jin and Yoongi Hyung. And I used to be friends with Jimin and Hoseok, but..." He trails off.

Your eyebrows shoot up. Jimin and Hoseok used to be friends with the boss?

"Really?"

He nods, scratching the back of his head. You aren't used to this genuine side of him. He always seems so confident and arrogant.

"Yeah, back in high school we were best friends. Jin, Yoongi, Jimin, Hoseok and another called Namjoon. We told each other everything. They knew more about me than anyone else in the world. In fact, they still do to this day,"

Why didn't they tell you? Whenever talking about the boss, Jimin and Hoseok always seemed a little distant and out of it, now you think about it. And you had been beginning to wonder how the boys knew so much about him and his past.

"So, what happened? Why aren't you close anymore?"

He sighs. At this moment, he couldn't see a reason for you to not know the truth. He was under the impression that you already thought pretty low of him.

"I once had another close friend... he was someone Jimin and the others didn't know about as he attended a different school to us. He went through a messy breakup. A real messy breakup... and somehow it impacted me a lot," he explains.

"He grew depressed because of his heartbreak and seeing him like that shocked me. He was normally a bright person, and he changed so much just because of that one situation. He became a player and grew insensitive to other's feelings. And as I was so close to him, that really influenced my decisions and attitudes towards women. I didn't want the same thing to happen to me," He sighs, looking up at the stars above him and asking them why he was telling you this. Kim Y/N of all people, the girl who always came across as an ice-queen. But he was surprised to say the least that you were turning out to be so easy to talk to.

"I guess that's how i got my label and why I am the way that i am. I play around with girls and then leave them before I catch feelings; before it's too late. There really is no excuse for the way I am, but the truth is I'm scared to get attached... because I've seen how you can get hurt,"

You're shocked. So, this is why he's a player... for the same reason that you despise them.

"But out of my school friends, Jimin and Hoseok were the first to grow uncomfortable by my careless behavior. We all grew apart because of all the conflict it caused. I lost my best friends, so I didn't care about anything anymore. I thought if I've lost the most important people in my life, I might as well just throw it all away. I might as well continue to be a player. What does it matter anymore?"

He looks up at you, and you can see the sheer regret in his eyes. He'd simply been led down the wrong path by witnessing somebody else's misfortune, and it only led him into exactly what he was trying to avoid: pain. It weakened all of his relationships.

"When the company got handed down to me and I began running the business, I was reunited with Yoongi and Jin. I employed them because they needed jobs and had the right qualifications, and we still catch up a lot. They see I'm still the person I once was even if I've picked up a few bad habits," he chuckles sadly.

"One day I received the message that Park Jimin and Jung Hoseok came for an interview. I could hardly believe my eyes. Of course, I instantly recognized their names. I chose to employ them because deep down I still care about them. They didn't learn I was the boss of the company for quite a while, as i avoided every situation where they would find out. When they finally did, i'll never forget their faces when they saw me. They were pretty taken aback. Now they don't talk to me unless completely necessary, and even then, it's always formally. I guess I deserve this treatment" he sighs.

You're just quiet for a moment. You had no idea there was so much history between your new friends and your boss.

"I would have never guessed," i look up at him. "Hoseok and Jimin being your friends from highschool, i mean"

"Yeah, there were six of us in total. Close as any group of friends can be. Brothers,"

He was kind of shocked at himself. It wasn't often he opened up like this, but he felt comfortable around you. Being with you made him want to drop the playboy persona and be himself. There was something about you that made you seem very trustworthy.

You liked this side of Jungkook. You felt closer to him now, and he felt like less of a cocky flirt and more of a... human.

"Wait, hang on... you said you had another friend. One that had a messy breakup and grew depressed. What's his story? What happened to him?"

He nodded. "I haven't heard from him or Namjoon since. I heard Namjoon moved out of town and the other friend is still living here in Seoul somewhere,"

"Oh," that makes sense. "What was his name?" you ask casually.

He takes a deep breath. It's been a while since he last said his name.

"Kim Taehyung,"